Method and apparatus for intuitively administering networked computer systems

ABSTRACT

A method and apparatus intuitively to administer all components of a networked computer system by use of real multi-dimensional views of any component or any set of components, including components related to a specific business interest, and with customizable and fully extensible functionality, across heterogenous platforms and applications. Navigation and configuration tools are provided, with an intelligent cursor, to travel to and address any component part thereof, or subset of components, with status and abnormalities identified, monitored and controlled, and by hierarchical filtration, and aggregation correlation with asynchronous notification. Graphical presentation tools are also provided employing an enhanced zooming graphical display.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.11/054,887, filed Feb. 9, 2005, now abandoned, which is a continuationof U.S. application Ser. No. 10/837,923 filed May 3, 2004, nowabandoned, which is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.10/614,939 filed Jul. 8, 2003, now abandoned, which is a continuation ofU.S. application Ser. No. 09/545,024 filed Apr. 7, 2000, now abandoned,which is a continuation in part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/408,213filed Sep. 27, 1999, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,289,380 B1, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/892,919 filed Jul. 15,1997, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,958,012 A, which claims benefit of U.S.Application Ser. No. 60/021,980 filed Jul. 18, 1996, each of which isincorporated herein by reference.

STATEMENT AS TO RIGHTS TO INVENTION MADE UNDER FEDERALLY SPONSOREDRESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT, IF ANY

This patent is not based upon any federally sponsored research anddevelopment.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

A. Field of Invention

The present invention is in the field of systems and articles ofmanufacture to administer complex, heterogeneous networked computersystems.

B. Related Background Art

Prior art systems were deficient generally for two reasons: first,limitations inherent in available user interfaces, and second, absenceof open-architecture, integrated systems effectively to manage andadminister heterogeneous platforms using diverse operating systems formany different applications, including information technology andbusiness management administration and to isolate views of specificbusiness and management interests.

Prior art graphical user interfaces of administrative systems attemptedto administer multi-unit computer networks by causing any of the fourcategories of information to appear on the computer monitor being usedby the system administrator.

1. Lists, two-dimensional and on scrollable screens, typically using awindows program manager with many sublists showing printers, operatingsystems, physical sights, etc.

2. Tree diagrams showing the hierarchical relationships of the networksystem such as by showing the various geographical locations, the numberof buildings at a location, the number of computers at each location,and the peripheral equipment associated with each computer and thesystems being operated on each computer.

3. A hierarchical structure using folders and icons with each folderbeing a list of icons and with each icon by its color indicating thestatus of each unit.

4. Diagrams, with icons, of the various systems in a hierarchy.

Each of the displayed categories of information works well but withcritical limitations. For example, the use of two dimensional lists isdefinitely limited by the number of units: as the number increases, thelists become effectively unmanageable by the user. Further, thehierarchical systems can allow increased navigating ability but areagain limited to a few thousand devices and by the fact that the onlyrelationships that can be displayed are those within the hierarchy. Thisis limited typically because the tree structure is based on a singlehierarchy; for example, it may be organized geographically and this willnot allow display of units in multiple geographical locations that are apart of a particular business interest. The hierarchical systems alsohave the shortcoming that limited status-indicating information may bedisplayed in the available space. Even when using the folders-iconsystem, although multiple hierarchies can be displayed, the user tendsto be confused or is provided incomplete information by the limitedamount of data that can be provided. Managing the user interface itselfbecomes a bigger concern than managing the computer network. Althoughthrough certain enhancements, the tree diagram/map system can improve onits effectiveness, such as by showing a transmission line as green if itis functioning and red if it is not, it and the other prior artinterface systems are still limited to several thousand units.

In the case of all of the aforementioned prior art systems discussedabove, none can be effectively used in the modern environment in whichit is not uncommon to have 10,000 computer devices to more than 100,000such devices in a networked system. Further, the prior art systems limitthe scope of the responsibility of the systems administrator. As thenumber of units within a network system increases, the number ofphysical and logical relationships between the systems responsible forthe various functions increases exponentially so it becomes verydifficult, if not impossible, to manage the network system. Even trainedprofessionals cannot deal with the enormous numbers of relationshipsthat must be monitored and managed in the complex systems. With priorart systems administration interfaces, panel design, PF keys, and screenclutter prohibit the intuitive navigation that enables effective systemsand enterprise management.

The second broad category of deficiencies in the prior art relate to theabsence of manageable systems for networks comprised of widely diversehardware platforms and even more widely diverse software systems andspecific application programs. For some time, as computer networksbecame more complex, systems administrators have needed the ability tohave a view of the network that identifies and presents for viewing theunits or assets that function in support of a particular application,and also to have the ability to apply systems management functions(asset utilization, alarms, software distribution, etc.) to manage theparticular application. Prior to the present invention, a systemsadministrator would have to set up different systems for differentplatforms and applications: e.g., an administrator may need to set upSun NetManager or Open-View or IBM's NetView to run LANs, then set up adifferent set of systems management tools for each of the otherplatforms in a user's enterprise—e.g., a system to track activities onAS/400s; another administration system may be needed for a UNIX host andserver systems (and something different for each different UNIX OS, ifthere is more than one in a user's network). Further, mainframe systemstools for security, backup, scheduling, etc.; plus software distributiontools, desktop asset management tools, help desk and trouble-ticketingtools all had to be separately provided, and their compatibilityconstantly was problematic.

In the prior art, there has not been a system or apparatus that, on asingle console, effectively and in combination:

-   -   1. Uses 3-D virtual reality to map complex systems—business or        Information Technology—to an intuitive and effective interface;    -   2. Maps systems management tasks to business functions, not to        system hardware or software;    -   3. Achieves end-to-end comprehensive integrated systems and        network management of all elements of an IT network from a        single or several points of control;    -   4. Allows business process management of financial,        manufacturing, distribution, systems, and network applications        using a real world interface; and    -   5. Brings functionally robust management tools to client/server        systems.

The need for a system to accomplish these objectives was the result ofcertain historical developments that resulted in many users havingwidely diverse computer systems. In the early years of computing,mainframe computers were widely used. The advent of client/serversystems brought a new dimension to systems management. Multiplecomputers, from a simple one client/one server environment, to a complexarray of different computers from different manufacturers supportinglarge and complex client/server applications using a wide variety ofsoftware systems must be administered as if they were one interoperablesystem.

In large networks, with hundreds, or even thousands, of workstations anddozens of servers, administration and management of the individualworkstations is a very substantial task. The administration can includeworkstation configuration control, system security, workstation faultcorrection, application monitoring for software license compliance,software application distribution, software version control, andcustomization of user environment. In such large networks,administration became time-consuming and tedious because the systemadministration was in the same physical location as the workstation.Since these workstations are typically spread over a large areas such asa large, multi-story building, multiple cities, and even multiplecountries, a significant amount of time and effort was spent intraveling between workstations to perform management tasks.

In the prior art, the focus of system management was on networkequipment and systems. See, Stafford, “ApplicationManagement—Client-Server's Missing Link,” Bar Business, Feb. 1, 1996,Volume. 12, No. 2, p. 133. The prior art had developed infrastructurethat support the users' key assets: enterprise client-serverapplications and the data within them. However, client-serverapplication management was non-existent. Client-server users could onlyinefficiently, if at all, account for the assets within the system,determine what applications were on their networks, assess how thoseapplications were performing, identify failures occurring in hardware orsoftware assets, and then diagnose and correct faults. In part, becauseof these difficulties, planning for network growth also was a task thatwas difficult at best. Prior to the invention described herein, therewas no built-in way, efficiently, to get this information in adistributed application environment.

Unsuccessful attempts have been made to develop an end-to-end solutionto provide real time information about application health,administration, service level and performance. Application healthtypically encompassed queues, process states, interrupts and networktraffic. Two dimensional lists of assets, presented on a monitor, wereutilized. Using these lists, systems administrators dealt withapplication control issues, such as start/stop, user authentication andload balancing. Service level and performance includes response time,trend analysis, threshold alert and predictive analysis. Failures werehard to trace when the application management was not part of asystem/network management scheme. Typically, businesses reported that asignificant percentage of client-server trouble reports were attributedto application software. Mainframe systems had embedded, centralizedapplication monitoring facilities. However, in distributed environments,following the data flow is a complex task, since application and data gothrough many steps. Therefore, there has been a long felt need for asystem which could capture and act upon information about the behaviorof all the applications running on a networked system that includedclient-server systems.

Developers have attempted to create a system to monitor a client-servernetwork in its entirety. Conventional network management solutionsstabilized the infrastructure that support the user's key assets,enterprise client-server applications and the data within them. Then asecond generation of development products were developed which attemptedto monitor a client-server network in its entirety, across heterogeneousplatforms, from a single console. These systems monitor certainfunctions such as CPU time, input/output and disk space and also performand monitors security for the enterprise. They provided such functionsas sending alert-or-perform-the-task signals to enforce enterprise-widepolicies for such things as network performance and security access.

However, as systems became larger, more widespread, and moreheterogeneous, prior to the present invention, there has been noacceptable method for a manager fully to comprehend either the networksystem or the assets relevant to a particular malfunctioning subsystem.Conventional human interfaces, such as “trees” which displayed thestructure of the network in text form, or simple icons, whichrepresented parts of the system in two-dimensional form, were inadequateto provide a real-time system overview, or subsystem overview to allowthe administrator to envision a system, its malfunction, and thecorrective action needed.

Thus, prior to the present invention, there has been no applicationmanagement system and process, which would provide an understandable,yet comprehensive, system-wide overview of the network, or of a subpartof the network. The present invention relates to a method and apparatusof providing a three dimensional, animated overview and system tomonitor and troubleshoot even the most complex client-server system.Also, prior to the present inventions, there has been no client-serveradministration system which not only can monitor an individual resourceor specific platform, but also can provide an effective connectionbetween specific business operations and enterprise informationtechnology management.

The present invention achieves a broad reach of hardware platformintegration across heterogeneous networks and applications. This allowsthe present invention to manage business processes and productionactivities such as by detecting a potential inventory shortage andsending out a rush order to the appropriate supplier.

In many applications, including network management, modeling, web sitedesign and project management, user interfaces can be based on graphdiagrams. These diagrams show icons or shapes interconnected with lines.To convey more information about the objects and connections, both maybe annotated with text and numbers, or drawn with different shapes,icons, colors or animated effects.

It is also common that the objects in such diagrams, and sometimes theconnections as well, may contain further structures. The contents of anelement in the diagram may be represented as another diagram of the sametype, or in some other form, including other types of diagrams, propertysheets or text. The most common type of navigation in user interfacesbased on this concept is opening the component to see its contents. Forexample, by double-clicking with the mouse, selecting a menu item orother similar action, the user replaces the current view with anotherone. The new diagram may replace the current one in the program'swindow, or may open another window.

However, this common user interface approach has several disadvantages.The sudden transition from one diagram to another has the effect oflosing the context for the user: the elements in the contained diagramhave no visible relationship to the elements of the containingstructure. It is also psychologically jarring, and interrupts the workflow. Further, it enforces a hierarchical structure among the graphsthat is not always significant.

Other user interfaces have used the concept of continuous zooming toreflect such containment structures. Icons are displayed on a virtualdesktop, and the user can seamlessly zoom and pan on this desktop. Asthe user zooms in and the icons become larger in the user interface,their internal structure appears, in the form of other icons, text orother information. The user interface permit indefinite zooming, as longas there is more information contained in a visible element.

While such systems have several usability advantages, they have not beenable to represent the more complex structures that require graphdiagrams, with interconnected nodes.

In the field of network management, the common techniques forvisualizing the structure of the network are nested 2-D diagrams, 3-Dvisualization, tree controls and the new continuously zooming infinitegraph diagram. Each of these techniques has advantages, but none is goodat handling one particular problem: following a trail of relationshipsin a very large and bushy graph. The problem is common, and ischaracterized by a rapid fan-out of links. These links may representphysical network links, logical network links at various levels of anetwork stack, or the logical dependency relationships that driveQuality of Service analysis, impact analysis and root cause analysis.

If all of these links are displayed in a conventional static diagram,the diagram is rapidly overwhelmed by the number of links. Variousprior-art visualization techniques attempt to deal with the problemthrough nesting, filtering or scrolling, but none is very successful.

The hyperbolic tree is a well-known technique for visualizing directedgraphs. It renders the diagram as a straight-forward expanding tree, andsolves the bushiness problem by rendering the graph on a hyperbolicsurface. The diagram appears to the user as if it is drawn on thesurface of a sphere: as nodes get further away from the center, they getsmaller and eventually disappear over the horizon.

SUMMARY OF INVENTION

A. Real World Interface.

The present invention is a system and apparatus for visualizing thecomponents of a computer network system as a realistic three-dimensionalenvironment for the purposes of systems and network management. Thethree-dimensional rendering called the “Real World Interface,” by using“Virtual Reality” technology, shows computer systems, printers, networkrouters and other devices with their network interconnections, in arealistic or stylized environment symbolizing a geographic region like acountry, region or city, together with buildings. The user of the systemcan travel in the environment, using various interaction devices, anddirectly select devices for manipulation. The useful, practicalapplication of the present invention is to allow the administration ofsystems comprising 10,000 units or more efficiently, by displaying invirtual reality on a computer monitor the relevant portions of acomputer network, thus allowing the use to be intuitive as if physicallypresent at numerous remote locations.

Further, the present invention allows the user to visualize all theinformation known to a distributed, multifaceted database, and toprovide an overview of all the data, by use of comprehensive,manageable, intuitive views that relate to practical business issues.The present invention also includes a real world interface which usesautomatic piloting or alternatively, manual piloting for traversing thenetworked topography. Fast pathing and color coded alerts allow the userto determine precisely which resource is experiencing a problem. Userscan then drill down to any node and access management functions toresolve the problem or administer the system. The present inventionexceeds the design goals of prior art systems and interfaces. However,the present invention offers a choice of user interfaces including treeviews and two dimensional map views. All of these user interfaces offera high degree of user defined customization and filtering capabilitiesincluding the ability to create business process views.

Such views and visual aids allow a systems administrator to maximize useof his or her intuitive, communicative, and diagnostic skills inapplying such diagnostic and corrective systems to address a malfunctionin hardware, firmware, or software. Business interest views filter theviews to isolate specific business interests, such as managementinventory or payroll, and then to present virtual reality views,allowing an administrator of a networked computer system to review andmanage the specific assets that relate to that business interest.

B. Comprehensive End-to-End Management of all Resources.

The real world interface of the present invention provides a real-time3-D view of all the assets in a networked computer system, from theglobal network, to the computers in each area, to their processors anddrives, down to abstract objects such as databases, applications andrunning processes. The present invention provides a system that allowsthe systems administrator to identify, and in realistic views, to seerelevant parts of the network, and to see its status and configuration.This facilitates diagnosis and correction of any problem effectivelyidentified by use of the navigation tools and by directly activatingmanipulation and control software to correct the problem or to adjustthe operation of the object.

It is another object of the present invention to achieve administrationsystems which have other valuable features: an integrated operabilitythat enables each function to work seamlessly with the others; a commonmodel for administering all aspects of systems management with the samelook-and-feel for all functions; an open and interoperable solution thatworks across platforms, complements network managers, and easilyconnects to other solutions; a robust, proven set of systems managementfunctions that meet all the basic needs for managing client/serversystems; and a customizable interface that can be tailored to meet thepresent and future unique needs of different users within a company ororganization.

A further objective of the present invention is to broaden the scope ofthe systems under management, providing a comprehensive andbusiness-oriented view of a full enterprise network. The inventiondescribes in virtual reality terms the hierarchical structure of anetwork. The present invention includes a hierarchical organization ofthe various world-wide computer system components, including continents,wide area networks, cities, buildings, subnetworks, segments, computersand peripherals, and their internal hardware, firmware, and softwareresources. However, another objective of the present invention is toprovide a system that does not impose on the user any particularhierarchical model. The present invention allows the use ofconfiguration tools enabling the user to set up any logical structure.

C. Business Process Views.

Business process views filter the realistic perspectives necessary toreflect on a specific business interest, allowing a manager to reviewand manage a world that contains only computer-related assets relevantto that interest (payroll, inventory, cost accounting, etc.). Closeintegration with the monitoring and administration facilities giveimmediate access to servers and workstations, reflecting their currentstatus and providing fine-grained remote control.

In the present invention, Business Process Views allow users tocustomize the inventive system to dynamically construct filters to viewresources as they pertain to unique business roles or functions,business applications, locations or geographies, or any traditionalresource view. This concept inverts the traditional resource-centricview of enterprise management into a logical view, mapping managedresources needed to a specific business perspective. For example, viewsinclude but are not limited to, one or more of the following: geographyor location such as Northeast U.S. applications; a functional role suchas that of an administrator or security manager; any businessapplication such as an inventory or payroll; any community of interest,such as all users interested in a specific set of resources; andresource views such as a database, network, or a server, or anycombination of the above.

This allows the user to identify the parts of the network that relate toa specific business interest such as inventory control or payroll, andto display those parts in 3-D virtual reality enabling the user quicklyand intuitively to identify and solve a problem with a payroll server.

D. General Applicability.

The present invention can be applied to the management of any systemconsisting of devices capable of some form of industry standard networkcommunication, including dial-up networking. Such devices include butare not limited to: manufacturing, refining, and chemical processingequipment; air conditioning/heating systems; automated prison door andother security systems; electrical lighting systems; forklift systems;travel systems; and elevator systems.

The present invention will become more fully disclosed and understoodfrom the detailed description given herein, and from the accompanyingfigures. That description and those figures are provided by way ofillustration only. Changes, modifications, implementations, andembodiments obvious to one skilled in the art given the withindisclosures, are within the scope and spirit of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a global diagram showing the relationships between the varioussystem components used in conjunction with the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a flow diagram showing the operation of the main control loopof the virtual reality workstation software system.

FIG. 3 is a flow diagram that describes the processing of and theresponding to various events.

FIG. 3A is a flow diagram that describes the processing of status changeevent data shown in FIG. 3.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram the presents the algorithm used to determinethe next position of the virtual reality system view.

FIG. 5 is a flow diagram that describes the process used to adjust eachsystem model according to the viewing position.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram that describes the rendering of each visualobject.

FIG. 7 illustrates the visualization workstation Control Panel.

FIG. 8 illustrates the Business View control panel.

FIG. 9 illustrates the manual navigation control panel.

FIG. 9A is a diagram showing operational features of automaticnavigation used in connection with manual operation.

FIG. 10 presents an overview of the operation of model management toolsused to configure the visual appearance of various system componentsdisplayed in the virtual reality system.

FIG. 10A illustrates the Class Editing and Definition panel of thesystem presented in FIG. 10.

FIG. 10B illustrates the Properties Panel of the system presented inFIG. 10.

FIG. 10C illustrates the SysObjID Panel of the system presented in FIG.10.

FIG. 10D illustrates the Menu Panel of the system presented in FIG. 10.

FIG. 10E illustrates the Cursor Panel of the system presented in FIG.10.

FIG. 10F illustrates the 2D Icon Panel of the system presented in FIG.10.

FIG. 10G illustrates the 3D Icon Panel of the system presented in FIG.10.

FIG. 10H illustrates the Selecting New Object Panel of the systempresented in FIG. 10.

FIG. 10I illustrates the Selecting File Panel of the system presented inFIG. 10.

FIG. 10J illustrates the Colors Panel of the system presented in FIG.10.

FIG. 10K illustrates the Textures Panel of the system presented in FIG.10.

FIG. 10L illustrates the Size Panel of the system presented in FIG. 10.

FIG. 10M illustrates the Distances Panel of the system presented in FIG.10.

FIG. 10N illustrates the Object Panel of the system presented in FIG.10.

FIG. 11 illustrates the system with Status Display and a network scene.

FIG. 12 illustrates the Targeting Reticule.

FIG. 13 is an example of a World View depiction.

FIG. 14 is an example of a map scene depiction.

FIG. 15 is another example of a map scene depiction.

FIG. 16 is an example of a building scene depiction.

FIG. 17 is an example of a network scene with bridges and routers.

FIG. 18 is a depiction of component interior scenes.

FIG. 19 is a depiction of software processes and other softwaresubsystems in a computer.

FIG. 20 is a screen display illustrating the zooming graph features ofthe present invention.

FIG. 21 illustrates a method for revealing the inner structure of anode, in accordance with the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A. Constructing the Inventive System

The invention is accomplished by use of the 3-D graphical userinterface, network discovery and monitoring software engines thatinteract with and enable the interface and a central repository, and acentral repository comprising a comprehensive database describing everycomputer-related asset on a network.

In the preferred embodiment all of the objectives of the presentinvention are accomplished.

Architecture

The various components that comprise the complete network analysissystem is shown in FIG. 1, and includes one or more of visualizationworkstation 101, an object repository 102, one or more managementapplications 103, and one or more agents 104 on each such managementapplication. The visualization workstation interacts primarily with theobject repository 102: it requests information from it, it sendscommands to it, and it gets notifications of events such as statuschanges or object additions from it. The repository 102 in turn getsthis information from the various management subsystems 103 which arefed by the agents 104 on the managed systems. The key architecturalconsideration of the present system is that in normal operation, thevisualization workstation 101 interacts only with the object repository102. This minimizes network traffic, optimizes the performance of therendering on the workstation, and minimizes the interconnectivitybetween the visualization workstation 101 and the multitude ofmanagement subsystems and agents existing in practical networks.

On rare occasions, the visualization system sends commands directly tomanagement systems and gets event notifications directly from managementsystems (or indeed from any other application on the network). Thus, thearchitecture is designed for optimal operation and minimal network loadin normal operation, without imposing limitations on the forms ofcommunication possible in special cases.

The main program operation and display management process is show byFIG. 2. The program operates in a loop, repeatedly performing the samefunctions until the user terminates the program. The loop begins byreceiving and responding to events shown in module 201. If the eventreceived is an Exit command, the loop terminates. Otherwise, the loopcontinues by determining a new position of observation 202. Next, thevisible models are adjusted to reflect any changes in position 203.Finally, the graphical objects are rendered 204. In order to achievesmooth animation, it is important that this main program loop executesas quickly as possible. The ideal rate of execution is 30 repetitionsper second, which corresponds to a video frame rate.

FIG. 3 elaborates on module 201 of FIG. 2. This module deals with thesystem responding to events. The five modules shown at the top of FIG. 3represent the different types of events the system receives. Theseinclude user interface events 301, messages from other parts of thevirtual reality workstation 302, messages from third party extensionsinstalled in the virtual reality workstation 303, event notificationsreceived from the object repository 304, and messages received fromother systems 305. All of these events and messages are processed by theevent dispatcher 306, which calls appropriate code modules to act uponthe events and messages. These include a module to stop the currentflight 307, a module to begin a new flight 308, a module to change thevisualization 309, a module to handle a change of status 310, and amodule to perform specific operations on objects 311.

FIG. 3 a elaborates on status change 310 of FIG. 3. The status changeevent 320 message is sent to the event dispatcher 321 which communicateswith the module 322. Said module 322 sets the appropriate model of theappropriate color for the status indication of the affected object. Adecision is made in module 323 as to whether a preset threshold forvisualization has been exceeded with either the status indicator beinghidden at module 324 or the appropriate change of status signal beingsent. Figure determining if an instant jump must take place 401. If not,the system determines if the viewer should enter or exit a scene 402. Ifnot, the system determines if automatic flight mode is active 403. Ifautomatic flight mode is not active, the system calculates the nextposition and orientation based upon the input control devices and therate of frame rendering 406. If automatic flight mode is active, thesystem calculates an interpolated position and orientation along acalculated flight path 407. If module 401 determines that an instantjump must take place, a determination is made if the jump is to adifferent scene 404. If so, or if module 402 determined that an objectmust enter or exit a scene, the system determines a list of visibleobjects in the current scene 405. Finally, the system determines a newposition and orientation 408.

FIG. 5 elaborates on module 203 of FIG. 2. This module deals with thesystem adjusting models to reflect any changes in position. Modules 501and 506 handle the iteration through the list of visible objects,selecting each object to be rendered. Module 502 determines if theobject is opened in place. If it is, module 511 determines if the objectshould be closed and, if so, modules 512 and 513 delete any containedobjects from the list of visible objects and replace the closed objectswith the appropriate model. If module 502 determines that the object isnot opened in place, module 503 determines if the object should beopened in place and, if so, modules 509 and 510 replace and add neededobjects. If module 503 determines that the object should not be openedin place, module 504 determines if the object should be adjusted forlevel of display and, if so, invokes module 507 to replace the object'smodel. Module 505 then determines if the object should be resized and,if so, calls upon module 508 to resize the object model. Finally, module506 retrieves the next visible object, iterating through the entirelist.

FIG. 6 elaborates on module 204 of FIG. 2. This module 601 performs theactual graphics rendering of all visible objects. Objects are renderedin the invention using a graphics accelerator. When available, and inother embodiments, however, sufficiently fast main frame systemprocessor(s) could be used to perform the rendering. The presentinvention performs the rendering using the OpenGL graphical interfacelibrary. This library is structured such that the calling program neednot be aware of the underlying graphical hardware. The use of a softwareimplementation of OpenGL on current microprocessor-based systems,however, will result in a speed penalty.

The object repository 102 in FIG. 1 is notified of major changes in thesystem configuration or status (changes to those objects it maintains)through the standard event notification mechanism of the invention.Because only major, relatively static objects are maintained in therepository, the real world interface is kept up-to-date on importantchanges while network traffic is limited.

When the workstations require dynamic data, which is maintained only onthe remote SMS databases and not replicated in the repository, therepository server passes their requests on to the remote systems. Theworkstations can access all data, whether stored locally or not. Thisallows the system to balance the conflicting requirements. For example,important servers may install monitoring agents to report continuallythe status of a database server. This information is already monitoredcentrally, with event notification over the network, and displayingthese monitored processes centrally does not burden the networkexcessively. But if the user asks for visualization of all the processesrunning on the server, the system makes an on-line query to the machine;this query, which does burden the network, occurs only when requested.

Technical Specifications

In the standard configuration, there will be one object repositoryserver shared by several workstations; the object repositorycommunicates with the distributed management facilities across theheterogeneous network, and the workstations communicate only through therepository server.

VR Workstations

The operating system is Windows NT. A Unix system may be supported inother embodiments. The preferred hardware embodiment includes a personalcomputer utilizing not less than a Pentium 586 microprocessor by Intel.The computer should contain at least 32 Mb of Random Access Memory and a3-D accelerated video board with OpenGL support. The preferred systemshould include a powerful workstation running the Windows-NT operatingsystem. The preferred embodiment uses the standard Open GL 3-D renderingfacilities provided in Windows NT; for good performance, the platformshould provide hardware acceleration of OpenGL, which is provided by anumber of vendors including Intergraph.

Object Repository Server

The Operating System is Windows NT. A UNIX system may be supported inother embodiments.

The hardware is an Intel-based PC. Other hardware platforms may besupported by other embodiments.

It is possible to execute both visualization and repository on the samesystem; in that case, a dual-processor system is preferred. One or morevisualization workstations can also work with an object repositoryoperating on a separate server machine.

Network Connection

The system supports several network connection protocols to all systemsthat will generate events or feed data into the repository, includingTCP/IP, SNA and DECnet. The repository server uses TCP/IP to communicatewith the VR workstations.

Database

The current embodiment uses Microsoft SQL Server. Otherindustry-standard databases may be used in other embodiments.

Systems Configuration

The standard configuration combines a single object repository serverwith one or several Real World Interface workstations. Removing thedatabase processing and event handling from the 3-D simulation reducesits impact on the performance and realism of the simulation. The objectrepository server can operate on the same machine as other CA-Unicenterprocessing. A minimal configuration might combine the object repositoryserver and a Real World Interface workstation on a single machine, atsome possible impact on the performance (and hence realism) of the 3-Dvisualization.

The inventions described above may be varied or implemented in manyways. Variations and implementations as would be obvious to one skilledin the art are within the scope of such invention.

In other embodiments of the present invention, advanced display optionsare provided, including an immersive display with head-mounted displays,and a cave display with multiple large screen displays encompassing theuser.

B. Elements and Features

Real World Interface

The system and apparatus of the present invention displays an entirenetwork of computers, peripheral equipment, operating systems andapplication programs in an environment that represents physical reality:the geographical space in which the network exists, which might spanseveral continents and countries and might contain various regions andcities and groupings of buildings (often called “campuses”), aparticular building, a particular floor of a building, and a particularroom and the computer related units in the room. In order to achieve theappearances that are important features of the present invention, inaddition to the exterior of the computer, the inside of the computerwith internal components such as the processor, the disk storage,network card, tape storage, etc., are displayed in virtual reality. Inaddition to the computer devices the networks in the present inventionprocesses, databases and other abstract objects are rendered on thedisplay as real things.

The realism of the inventive system is expanded by the use ofphoto-realistic buildings with management tools so that the user may beable to feed photographs of the user's buildings or floor layouts andequipment into his system. The inventive system includes support forthree dimensional models produced by industry standard three dimensionalmodeling tools. The inventive system also provides simple modeling toolsto create new simple models. Management tools to identifycomputer-related units by class or category, such as a Hewlett Packardprinter or an IBM server, are provided.

The present invention provides to the user a control panel asillustrated in FIG. 7.

Targeting Reticule

To identify individual objects, the Real World Interface uses the ideaof an intelligent cursor or “targeting reticule” that displaysinformation about the indicated object, as shown in FIG. 12.Illustrative information includes the network address and the name ofthe system. Cities, buildings, subnetworks and computers are not labeledin the 3-D view, because 3-D text is hard to read. Instead, the mousecursor becomes a “targeting reticule” which displays information aboutthe object the user points to. It displays the information “Hudded” (anew verb, coined from “Heads-Up Display”) onto the “cockpit window” orcrosshairs/quadrant display.

By simply pointing to an object with the pointing device (such as amouse), the user can bring up a reticule that gives the formal andinformal name for the object and a brief summary of its status. Thistechnique works for all objects, from cities and buildings, to networksand computers, to disk drives and processes.

Realism Enhancers

The inventive system uses other features to enhance the illusion ofreality, including the provision of geographic maps to providebackgrounds, such as realistic 3-dimensional topographical surfaces,which, through texture rendering, creates more useful views anduser-specifiable maps or textures for arbitrary geographic regions thatallows a customer to define a geographic area of interest.

Automatic Detection of Topology and Components

The configuration of the current invention requires the automaticdetection of network topology and devices, and utilizes the automaticdetection of internal computer components and of software processes.Further, the current invention includes interactive management tools forconfiguration of geographic relationships, buildings and networkrelationships. The present invention allows the override or the customtailoring of the computer system and the network topology when automaticdiscovery fails, or produces unsatisfactory or incomplete results. Thecurrent invention also includes an automatic layout of logical networksand 3-dimensional space and an interactive layout of network and devicesover floor plans or other diagrams.

Common Internal Structure

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a common internalstructure is provided to allow both 3-dimensional environmental,2-dimensional and standard user interface displays like tree diagrams,icons and folders. This is critical to allow a user to operate thesystem even when sufficient computer power is not available for a3-dimensional display, or when other reasons dictate the use of otherinterfaces.

Customizability

An automatic layout and 3-dimensional realism is provided to lay outlogical networks, in 3-dimensional without crisscross lines. Manualconfiguration capability is also provided. FIG. 10 presents an overviewof the configuration process. The present invention provides to the usera series of panels to achieve customization.

The Class Editing and Definition user interface illustrated in FIG. 10Aallows the user to select a class to work with, or to create a new classof object to be used in the system.

The Properties tab in the user interface illustrated in FIG. 10B allowsthe definition or modification of properties of the class, andassignment of values to those properties.

The SysObjID tab illustrated in FIG. 10C provides for specification ofID numbers to be used in communication with the system's own programsand with program extensions built by third parties.

The Menu tab illustrated in FIG. 10D provides for defining the menu thatis displayed when activating an object of this class, and the actions tobe taken for those menu items. The actions can include communicatingwith built-in facilities of the system, and executing other programs.

The Cursor tab illustrated in FIG. 10E provides for specifying what datashould be displayed in the four quadrants of the cursor, the targeting“reticule.”

The 2D Icon tab illustrated in FIG. 10F provides for specifying the iconto be displayed in the 2-D interfaces of the system, for differentstatus values of the object.

The 3D Icon tab illustrated in FIG. 10G provides for specifying the 3-Dmodel for the object, to be used in the 3-D visualization system. Themodel currently selected may be previewed in the window on the left atFIG. 10G. The control panel on the bottom of FIG. 10G allows foradjusting the view or the orientation of the object. The system alsoallows the user to select each of the various models used in theadaptive display (“level-Of-Detail” and “Open-in-place”).

The Selecting New Object view illustrated in FIG. 10H allows the user tocreate a new object from simple geometric shapes. This model may then beadjusted in size, shape and orientation, and decorated with colors andtexture coverings.

The Selecting File view illustrated in FIG. 10I allows the user toselect an existing model generated with an industry-standard modelingtool.

The Colors view illustrated in FIG. 10J allows the specification of thecolor of the entire object. The Textures view illustrated in FIG. 10Kallows the user to specify the texture map (bitmap) to be pasted ontothe object to give it a photorealistic appearance. The textures arebitmaps in industry-standard formats, and are often scanned photographs(although drawn or painted images may also be used).

The Size view illustrated in FIG. 10L allows the user to adjust the sizeand shape of the object.

The Distances view illustrated in FIG. 10M allows the user to specifythe distances at which the different models are switched in, under theLevel-of-Detail and Open-in-place modes of adaptive display. Theinteractive layout of network and devices over floor plans or otherdiagrams allows a customizing function by which the automatic layouts oflogical networks can be shown in relationship to floor plans or otherdiagrams.

Dynamic Rescaling

Dynamic appearance, navigation and behavior during execution areprovided by the current invention. Network connections are shown andvarious parts of the network are automatically rescaled as the operatormoves through the realistic, 3-dimensional environment to get closer tothe part of the computer-related units which are of interest. Networkconnections and indicator lights are initially shown large enough to bevisible in the overview, but as a user travels in virtual reality,closer to a particular object, they unobtrusively shrink to take on amore reasonable size in the local view. This automatic resealing doesnot continuously scale a network connection down to the actual size of acable. The external view of the geographic space is the most severescaling problem.

Automatic Navigation

In the present invention, navigation occurs automatically by selectionof a device in a 3-dimensional environment, in order to retain theillusion of residing in real environment. An automatic navigationcontrol panel is provided as illustrated in FIG. 9. The system providesa “you are here” display, indicating the present location in terms oflevel of depth in the hierarchy and indicating the choices made to reachthe displayed level. The navigation portion of the inventive systemallows the user to select and to navigate to higher levels within thehierarchy. This automatic navigation includes automatic determination ofa reasonable trajectory, avoiding collision with intervening objectssuch as buildings, and automatic determination of a reasonable speed andreasonable acceleration and deceleration that will take a separateamount of time for the user. The invention also provides for a historylog and search windows using the user interface techniques well known inthe computer industry. A history log will enable the user to viewrecently visited locations and quickly jump to a desired location.Search windows allow the user to search the network for the location ofa particular unit, based on name, address, node ID or other properties(using well-known database search techniques).

When a GUI screen shows some important data, such as the event log whichlists critical alerts, a “take me there” button automatically flies tothe computer that originated the event.

The mouse provides “automatic flight” in a logical extension of theclassical mouse operations. Moving the mouse over an object (withoutclicking) displays information about it, just like the prompts displayedby modern toolbars and other controls: this is the “targeting reticule.”Clicking on an object means “take me there;” it makes the system travelto the object through a smooth flight path and halt in front of it (nodisconcerting jump). Double-clicking on the object means “enter theobject,” as does a second click after the first travel. Rightmouse-click brings up a local menu, common in modern GUI systems.

Manual Navigation

For manual navigation in 3-space, the preferred embodiment of theinvention calls for a VR-type 6 DOF (degrees of freedom) control device,such as the Spaceball, that allows independent control of both positionand viewing direction. Both allow control of movement in 3 dimensions(forward/back, left/right, up/down) as well as turning the direction ofview (pitch, yaw, roll).

Manual flight, may be accomplished by use of a standard mouse with pushbuttons. The systems provides a control panel for manual flight undermouse control. While certainly less flexible than the 6-DOF devices, thecontrol panel illustrated in FIG. 9 is quite useful especially incombination with automatic flight.

Certain features of automatic navigation may be used after use of and inconnection with manual navigation, and these features are illustrated inFIG. 9A. These features allow the user to navigate manually down intothe hierarchy at a specific geographic location, to jump by a “take methere” request, by a search or by use of a tree structure, to a secondgeographic location. The user by manual navigation can ascend thehierarchy in either location with the “you are here” feature of themanual operation.

Continual Reporting

Continual reporting is provided by the present invention, including astatus display of devices. The continual reporting function of thepresent invention is further achieved by the use of distributedoriginating-site filtering and the reduction of status display in thenetwork.

Intelligent Aggregated Status Display

The present invention provides a system that indicates the status ofobjects by use of colored indicator lights. The status reflects what isgoing on inside computers, operating systems, networks, disk drives,databases and critical processes. Such status indicators are aggregatedso that network segments, subnetworks, buildings and cities reflect thestatus of what is in them. At the highest level, when traveling over themap, status indicators show the aggregate status for cities andbuildings, in the form of globes that hover over the objects. This isshown in FIG. 11.

Only problems are indicated: to keep the scene simple, green lightsindicating OK status are omitted. The aggregation is intelligent,weighing alerts based on importance, to avoid everything always showingred, a problem with early network management systems. The inventiondiscloses that the view inside a building reflects the aggregate statusof subnetworks, segments, and eventually the individual machines. Again,they are shown with hovering colored globular lights, and show onlyproblem spots. Inside a computer, the systems show the status ofcomponents and subsystems. Our indicator shows the status of thecomputer itself, in terms of loading, process queue length, and numberof users, while the status of its subsystems are indicated separately oneach one.

Adaptive Disclosure

The inventive system utilizes several techniques to adapt the level ofdetail in the view to particular circumstances. This is necessarybecause of the performance and resolution limitations of today'shardware, and to make the display comprehensible to the user. Today'scomputer systems cannot visualize the thousands of computers in acountry-wide network with adequate speed; even if it could, it would dolittle good because from 30,000 feet a computer is no larger than apixel on the screen; and even if it were visible, the user would notwant to deal with a large scene with thousands of objects in it.

The system uses three techniques to deal with this problem. First, the3-D visualization uses the standard technique of “level of detail,”where several models of different complexity are provided for eachobject. A distant object is rendered with the simplest model; as theuser navigates closer, the system automatically substitutes increasinglycomplex and realistic models as resolution warrants. Second, certainaggregate objects such as a network segment automatically“open-in-place” to show their contents as the user gets closer, and arereplaced with their closed external model again when the user movesaway. Third, some complex objects remain closed and must be entered toshow their internal components.

To avoid irritating flicker, the switching for “level-of-detail” and“open-in-place” are implemented with hysteresis, where the switching outdistance is greater than the switching in distance.

The inventive system is fully configurable in that the user can specifywhich class of object can open in place or provide several models for“level of detail” display.

The user of the system can ignore this issue—when it is done well, it isunobtrusive, simply speeding things up—but it gives a systemadministrator an opportunity to tailor the presentation to the users'interest, to the system configuration and to the performance ofavailable hardware.

Status Monitoring, Filtering And Aggregation

The present invention communicates with prior art technologies whichcontinually monitor the operating status of all the components in thesystem: hardware and software, network and operating systems, databasesand applications, network cards and disk drives. The results of themonitoring are then filtered according to preset threshold parametersand aggregated per the user's specifications.

Monitoring Agents/Open Architecture

The subsystems are monitored by independent agents on the managedsystems; the agents report back to a manager whenever there is asignificant status change, and possibly on a regular basis to signifythat all is well. The invention provides customizable agents, but italso supports industry-standard protocols such as SNMP, allowingthird-party software agents and hardware devices to be managed.

Filtering of Secondary Problems

Intelligent filtering allows the system to remove the noise, eliminatingsecondary problem reports when a fundamental problem has already beendetected.

Aggregation

Although the agents monitor all the individual components, the systemreports aggregate status for larger systems: for an entire computer, anentire network, an entire building, an entire country. The aggregationpermits weighing factors, reflecting the reality that a database servermachine is more important than an individual desktop machine.

Alternative Displays

The status of all components, from large aggregates like cities,buildings and networks to individual components like routers, computers,disk drives and databases, is displayed with the same principles in thevirtual reality view, in the diagram view, or in the tree view.

Business Process Views

The present invention also visualizes information technology assets froma specific business perspective. The invention enables an isolated viewof service levels, problems and administration for specific interestssuch as order entry and payroll. These business-oriented views of theassets in the network are based in groups. These are arbitrary groupingsof things, groupings that make a specific business viewpoint. The userdefines these groupings using simple drag-and-drop operations in theconfiguration subsystem, using standard GUI technology. The inventionfurther permits the definition of any arbitrary grouping of computers,segments, subnetworks, routers, databases, and applications which may beassigned to a folder.

Business Process Filtering

The system provides a separate control panel, illustrated in FIG. 8,that shows the aggregate service views (the user configures this panel,selecting the service view important and should be continuallymonitored). The services views have backlit buttons. The color of thebacklit button represents the status of each business view.

The selected view becomes a filter for the system, one that addressesonly those objects that exist within the selected service view; otherssimply disappear from view. This applies to all levels of hierarchy: ifa city has no components related to that service view, or if asubsystem, a segment or a computer is not involved with the subsystem,they are not part of the business view; similarly, if a process ordatabase is not used in an application inside the drive bay, it isremoved and is not part of the business view.

Directly Visualizing Business Groups

It is also possible to group several computers, segments or subnetworksin a group and place this group in a building, at a subnetwork orsegment to give the manager a perspective of the resources in the systemthat represents the physical connectivity of the network: it does notshow which computers are connected to each other, but it groupscomputers or networks according to organization or project.

Control Panel

An information display control panel is illustrated in FIG. 7. Theinformation display panel is configurable, like the other controlpanels; it may be turned on or off, and placed where it is convenient.

Display of Object Properties

The Real World Interface provides built-in search facilities that use anordinary GUI screen, and provide immediate auto-flight, highlighting andfiltering of specific objects. The Real World interface alsoautomatically invokes the standard interface facilities for manipulationand control of the machine under focus or other objects (user ID's,installed software, files and backup media, etc.)

Multiple Views

The Real World Interface provides two additional views of the resourcesin the networks and the business groups: a two dimensional map or systemdiagram representing the system as connected icons, and a tree diagramrepresenting the hierarchical structure of the network, These views areuseful as navigation and search aids from the 3-D view. They are alsorobust enough to work as the main interface when using a low-endcomputer not capable of showing the 3-D view—for example, when logginginto the system from home

Manipulation and Control of the Managed System

The Real World Interface invokes the standard GUI facilities formanipulation and control of the managed objects. Through a local menu,the user can bring up manipulation and control panels for each defect.From this panel, the manager can reach every management facilityavailable for the targeted machine.

Extendabililty by API System (Open Architecture)

The inventive system provides an API system that allows the user toextend the interface and object capabilities of any part of theinventive system. The API system allows a new object to be added or anew class of objects to be defined in the object repository, informationdisplayed in the targeting reticule to be modified, the user interfacedisplays to be modified by conventional manipulation tools, or thecolors for status indication to be changed. Menu options for the newobject or class of objects can also be controlled.

Performance And Loading

In other embodiments, the present invention may provide a system thatillustrates the amount of activity on disk drives, network cards, etc.by use of a blinking light, similar to the drive light on a realcomputer. The local agents then monitor the activity on the system, andreport average loading. The system may be configured for differentlevels of timeliness, a typical setup might report statistics on atwenty-minute basis. Thus, the activity indicator shows what ishappening with the system on an average basis.

C. Dynamic Operation of the System

The system of the present invention starts with a view of a typicalsystem administrator's area of responsibility as a system manager—theentire earth—rotating before him or her. Next, the system opens up aworld map.

From there, the user may navigate closer to an area of interest, eitherby flying with manual control, or with auto pilot: if the user clicks onthe map the system will fly the user to the selected location.

As the administrator gets closer, he or she sees a relief map withcities and network connections. Again, the administrator can flymanually, using skills as if a helicopter pilot, or click on a city toget flown there by auto pilot.

Normally, all the cities, buildings and networks in the network areshown. To reduce the complexity, the administrator can activate abusiness view which shows only what is relevant to the specific businessinterest or problem of interest at any particular moment.

Eventually, as the administrator gets closer to a city, he or she seesbuildings. Each city and building reflects the aggregate status of thesystems inside it, in real time, by the status lights hovering overthem. As the administrator flies into a building (or double-clicks onit) he or she sees, e.g., the LAN configuration inside the building orother network scene. This network scene shows the actual computers,printers, routers and bridges connected to the network: as soon as a newcomputer is connected to the network, it becomes visible to supportdiscovery services and appears in this view immediately or after aregular refresh, depending on how the system is configured. The systemreflects the entire network hierarchy, showing internetworks,subnetworks and segments. The user can fly around among the computers,identifying all resources and observing their status. The system showscomputers, routers, printers and other devices as realistic models. Thestatus of computers, components and software systems on a continualbasis is available data.

If the administrator flies inside a computer (or double-clicks on it) heor she sees a view of the inside of it, with the relevant subsystems: atape drive, the disk subsystem, the processor, the network card, and theaggregate of software processes and other software subsystems.

Entering a subsystem shows a view of what is going on inside it. Forexample, the software space contains processes; the system shows all ofthe monitored processes, displaying their real-time status, size,resource consumption, etc. The management system continually knows thestate of the monitored processes (database management systems and otherimportant servers) through the operation of agents on the targetmachine.

Similarly, the disk subsystem shows all the logical drives (“filesystems” in UNIX terminology) known to the system, whether local orattached from a server. It shows their status, size and free space(shown through the targeting reticule). For remote drives, theadministrator can easily navigate to the system that owns the drive. Forlocal drives on a server that are attached from other machines, theadministrator can easily get a list of the client machines and navigateto them.

Once in a computer, the user can enter each subsystem and inspect itsproperties and status in real time. Clicking on a subsystem such as adisk drive or a database brings up the standard GUI managementfacilities, giving the administrator direct access to both operationaland administrative aspects.

Map Scenes

The world map (as illustrated in FIG. 13) allows the administrator tocheck the area of interest.

A map of each region (as illustrated in FIGS. 14 and 15) or continentshows the major cities and network links. The user controls how thenetwork is displayed at this level, using the configuration tools: theuser may want enough detail to be useful, but not so much that he or shedrowns in network links.

Each “city” really represents a local region, which may contain severaltowns and cities. For example, the system may be configured so that “NewYork” includes New York City as well as Fort Lee and Newark in NewJersey, and “Boston” includes some of the Boston suburbs.

As the user gets closer to a certain region, a regional map with higherresolution and more detail is automatically inserted (an example of“Level-Of-Detail” display). These maps may be tailored to the user'sparticular interests, showing specific towns, highways or rivers as theuser may prefer, by using the configuration subsystem.

Building Scenes

The city symbol is opened up to show the buildings (illustrated in FIG.16) when the user gets close, while other cities remain as simplifiedobjects. If two cities are close together (such as Los Angeles and SanDiego), both may open up into buildings. The buildings are located atreasonable, user controllable positions, but the scale is not realistic;at a realistic scale, the buildings would be too small to see.

The system contains a number of standard building designs, but the usercan enter custom designs using the configuration utility. This means auser can take photographs of its own buildings, feed them in as bitmapstogether with a geometry design (basic dimensions), and make itsbuildings look like the real thing.

Network Scenes

The system reflects the network hierarchy: the initial scene inside abuilding shows the various subnetworks and routers, when the user entersa subnetwork, he or she sees the various segments and bridges, andeventually sees the computers and other devices attached to the openedsegments, as shown in FIG. 17. This is done for practical reasons: ahorde of 2,000 computers is not manageable, nor can the computer renderthem effectively. The hierarchical network structure gives the user away to select only the necessary information.

The subnetworks are connected by routers, and the segments bybridges—all of these are manageable devices, and their identity andstatus are shown.

The segments open up in place as the user get close to them, showing allthe computers, printers and other devices. The visualization illustratesthe structure of the network: a ring like Token Ring or FDDI, or a buslike an Ethernet.

The rendering is optimized by simplifying the computers that are faraway, and automatically restoring the more precise representation as youget closer (another example of “Level-Of-Detail” display).

The system automatically generates a reasonable layout of the networkand the computers. The user can also define the layout manually, usingthe 2-D layout and configuration utility. The user can provide apicture, for example a diagram of an office layout or a simplifiedcampus map, for use as the floor instead of our standard tiles; this canhelp in using the system by associating subnetworks and computers withtheir physical location.

Device Scenes

The system knows how the different devices look: PCs, UNIX workstations,servers, mainframes, printers, routers, etc. The visualizations of thedevices are very realistic, based on texture mapping (photographs pastedonto the 3-D models). The models are complete, even the backs of thedevices look correct.

The database of physical models is maintained to reflect the commondevices. As with buildings, the user can add new computer types bytaking photographs of the machines (all the sides, including the back),scan the images, clean and simplify them, and define a new computermodel with a geometry definition and these images.

Computer Interior Scenes

Most of the components inside the computer are active: the CPU, thenetwork card, the drive bay and the software space. All may be displayedin virtual reality view, as illustrated in FIG. 18.

Additionally, graphical displays of software processes and othercomputer processing activities are provided, as shown in FIG. 19.

D. Zooming Graph Diagram

The system combines the capabilities of two types of user interfaces,graph diagrams and continuous zooming, in a unique way. At the highestlevel, the elements of a system is represented as a graph diagram, withicons interconnected with lines. The user can seamlessly zoom into thediagram, and pan the diagram in any direction to make visible any partof the very large virtual space. As the user zooms in to the diagram,and the icons get larger, the icons are automatically replaced withtheir internal structure. FIG. 20 provides a illustrative screen displayemploying the graphical zooming and display techniques of the system.

Since the user interface represents a graph of interconnected objects,and not just a set of objects arranged on a desktop, the diagram may atany moment contain lines that connect the icons.

The inner connections in the contained graph structure appear as theuser zooms in, and disappear as the user zooms out, just as the innernodes do.

As is common in modern user interfaces, both the type and properties ofthe objects or interconnections may be represented visually, usinggraphical elements, coloring, annotation or animation.

Different types of graph structures are extremely common in computersystems and in any other field of human endeavor. The techniquesemployed by applicants' system apply to any data structure that may berepresented as a graph.

In one implementation of the dynamic high-speed zooming feature, datafor certain display elements, such as icons, may be stored in a databasefor association with specific data to be visually represented. In suchan embodiment, the display element data may be retrieved from a localsystem or database or from a remote system or database, such as a remoteserver.

In such an embodiment, it is preferable if the data retrieval andgraphic zooming operations may be executed asynchronously. In caseswhere the display data is retrieved from a remote system, thisoperational autonomy enables a workstation to seemlessly execute thezooming operation even if the data retrieval process is slow. Forexample, if a workstation has requested display data which has failed toarrive in a timely manner, the zooming operation may proceed without thedisplay data, and present the display data whenever it arrives. This maybe true even if the display data arrives during the zooming process.

Fade Effects During Zoom

When zooming in to a node, the contents of the inner structure can beginto be drawn as soon as the icon is larger than a few pixels; when theicon is very small, the representation of the inner structure isomitted. It is preferred to represent the node with a recognizable iconfrom a very small size up to a reasonable size, and only begin to showthe internal structure when the icon gets larger than some thresholdvalue. A recognizable icon is easier to understand than a minutely drawndiagram. Deferring the drawing of the internal structure until it islarge enough to be useful also improves performance of the computersystem, since the number of graphs that need to be rendered is limitedto those that are visible within the computer display and are largeenough to be useful.

In order to make the user interface easily understood and navigated, thetransition from an icon to a diagram or other representation of theinner structure is made with a gradual fade-in effect. This ensures thatthe user retains a feel for the logical relationships among the objects.

Connecting Links To Internal Elements

When the user zooms into a node that has one or several links, thestructure contained inside the node is shown in the user interface. Thelinks that connect to the node may continue to be shown connected to theouter edge of the node, which is represented as the container of theinner structure. In many cases, the link that is shown connecting to thecontaining node is really connected to a specific node in the containedstructure. For example, a network diagram may show a connection to abuilding, but when the user interface is zoomed in to show the variouscomputers and other devices in the building, it is preferable to see theconnection as going to a specific computer.

If the situation is reviewed in the other direction, a link thatconnects to an inner node inside a structure should, when the userinterface is zoomed out to collapse the structure into a single icon, isconverted to a connection to the icon.

In the system, as the user zooms in, the icon representing the node istransitioned to the containing diagram, preferably with a fade effect.At the same time, the link shown connecting to the node is adjusted toconnect to the inner node.

If the icon is transitioned to the contained structure diagram through afade effect, the link transition is also done with a continuoustransition. If the inner structure is displayed without a fade effect,suddenly appearing as a replacement for the icon, then the link wouldundergo a similar sudden transition.

Consolidation of Connections

It is common in a graph that there may be several links between nodes intwo structures that are consolidated into two icons at a higher level ofthe diagram. For example, if there are two buildings that each containseveral computers, there may be several network links connecting pairsof computers in the two buildings.

When the user zooms out, reducing the two structures to two simpleicons, the connections between the several pairs of inner nodes arerepresented as connections between the higher-level icons.

In some cases, it may be preferred to show all the connections, even onthe higher level, to give the user a feel for the number of connections.This results in a number of parallel links.

In other cases, it may be preferred to consolidate the large number ofconnections into a single connection between the two higher-level nodes.This makes the user interface easier to read and understand.

In some cases, the various links at the lower level may representdifferent types of connections. In that case, it may be preferable toconsolidate links of like type, while still showing several linksbetween the higher level nodes, each representing one or several linksof a specific type.

Such propagation and consolidation of links when ascending thecontainment hierarchy has not been employed in a system based oncontinuous zoom of nested graph structures.

Identification of Container Type, Name and Properties

When the user interface zooms into an icon and the icon is opened upinto a diagram of the contained structure, it is of course possible tosimply remove the higher level, containing icon and show the containedstructure on the higher-level background surface. This reflects theessence of the containment situation: the contained graph is merely agraph within the larger structure.

In many cases, however, it is useful to render the container in such away that the containment relationship is visually identified, and thenature and identity of the container are obvious. To this end, when anicon is opened to show its contents, it is converted to a container verymuch in the style of conventional windowing systems: it has a title barwith the name of the container, with an icon in the upper left corneridentifying the type of the container.

In addition, it is often useful to show properties of the container. Forexample, in network management applications, it is common to indicatethe status of an object by coloring it red, orange or yellow. When theicon is expanded into a container, it is of course possible to color theentire container, but such a dramatic rendering may becounter-intuitive, since it emphasizes the red status for largercontainers over smaller ones. Instead, in the applicants' system, thestatus of the container is usually indicated by coloring the title bar.Other properties may be indicated through other icons or colorizationson the container or title bar.

Although a rectangular container is the most common, it is often veryuseful to draw the container as some other geometric shape, such as atriangle or circle.

Background Maps

To help the user recognize the type, identity and properties of acontainer, the system can draw a background image when the container isopened. Such a background image can represent the opened object in theform of an enlarged version of the icon, a logo, or whatever visualeffect is considered suitable. The background image may be specifiedusing any type of graphical file, including bitmaps, vector files, HTMLor other types of graphics.

In some cases, it is desirable to use as the background an image thatidentifies locations. This might be a street map or a building floorplan, for example. In these cases, icons in the contained structure maybe placed on the background map in the correct place. Placements may bemade manually, through drag-and-drop techniques, or by entering somecoordinate that identifies a location: latitude and longitude, streetaddress, zip code, phone number, or office or cubicle number.

While certain placement techniques have been implemented in the past,applicants' system is the first system to combine this technique ofphysical placement on a background map with the continuous zoom and pancapability. This makes the use of such placement considerably moreuseful, since it permits the detailed placement and yet retains thelarger perspective of where the whole container is. This is useful bothwhen the maps on two different levels of the diagram are based on asimilar map and when they are different, such as a building's floor plancontained within a logical network diagram without physicalrepresentation.

High Production Values in Graph Diagram User Interface

Applicants' system uses advanced rendering techniques withanti-aliasing, tinting, translucency and other effects to make thediagram legible and attractive during the continuous zooming. This is incontrast to conventional graph diagramming user interfaces that haveused traditional graphics techniques, which work well enough at a fixedsize or at integral zoom factors, but they do not render well when thesystem supports continuous zoom.

To make clearer the overlay structure of containers on the background,the system uses drop shadows to delineate the different layers of thenested diagram. To make this visual effect unobtrusive and yeteffective, the system uses a translucent shadow with a blurred edge.Although these techniques are of course well known in graphicsprocessing systems, but have never before been employed in a userinterface designed for managing graph structures.

Translucency of Background Surfaces

In some cases, a connection may pass underneath a container. Inclassical graph rendering user interfaces, the line just disappearsunder the container and reappears at the other end. This make thediagram difficult to read.

In the applicants' system, using the advanced rendering technologydiscussed above, such a line is faintly visible through the slightlytranslucent background of the container.

Adaptation to Limited Computer Power

Applicants' system automatically adapts itself to the observedperformance of the computer. If the update frame rate during zooming andpanning are deemed insufficient, the system disables effects such asanti-aliasing, translucency and background maps while there islarge-scale motion in the display, and re-renders them once the displayhas stabilized. Although on many modern computers, there is ampleprocessing power to render the advanced visualization effects in withacceptable performance even during dynamic behavior such as zooming,experience shows that responsiveness is critical to a pleasingenvironment.

Carefully Managed Dynamics

In any graph diagramming user interface, there will be differenttechniques for navigating. The user can manually zoom and pan, using themouse in combination with various key sequences on the keyboard: forexample, Ctrl+drag up and down might zoom the display, while spacebar+drag might pan the display.

It is also common in such user interfaces to provide various forms ofautomatic navigation. For example, double-clicking on an icon usuallyopens the icon and displays its contents; a button on the toolbar stepsup one level in the containment hierarchy, collapsing the current graphinto an icon in another graph.

In applicants' system, the corresponding operations are done throughautomatic zooming of the diagram in or out.

To make the behavior of the user interface pleasant and easilyunderstood, the dynamic behavior of the visual effects are carefullytuned. For example, when the diagram is automatically zoomed in or out,the speed of the effect is gradually increased up to a maximum zoomspeed, and then gradually decreased down to zero; the entire transitionis timed to be visual but not dizzying.

To aid in panning, the system supports “tossing” the diagram in onedirection, by making a rapid dragging gesture with a mouse. The diagramglides along and gradually slows to a stop under the effect of simulatedfriction; if it hits the edge of the large virtual space, it bouncesback.

User Rearrangement of Layout

When rendering a graph structure as a diagram of icons and lines, thearrangement of the icons and lines on the diagram surface can have alarge impact on the clarity and impression of the diagram. The systemarranges the symbols in different structures by, among other things,making a best guess in choosing the most suitable arrangement, dependingon the structure of the diagram. The system also allows the user tochoose another layout mode, or to switch to manual mode and arrange thelayout by dragging icons on the surface.

The system can be used in a collaborative environment, where severalusers view a shared database. However, an individual's rearrangement ofdiagram layouts are considered personal, and do not affect other usersof the system. To ensure that the user will see the same diagram layoutregardless of which physical computer he or she uses to view theinformation, the personal layout specifications are stored in the shareddatabase, identified as belonging to the user.

Opening or Closing Individual Nodes

The standard description of a data structure like the one used here, acontainment hierarchy of nested graphs, emphasizes the fixed hierarchy.This is one reason why conventional systems for visualizing graphstructures have been based on explicitly opening and closing individualgraph windows. In some cases, however, the user may prefer to blur thelevel of the hierarchy when viewing the data structure.

For example, when viewing a network diagram that has several computersin Chicago connected to several computers in New York, a user may wantto see those individual computers and the links between them. At thehigher level, the diagram shows only an icon for Chicago and NewYork—and between them, several other icons for cities like Detroit andBuffalo. When zoomed in to show the individual computers, the containersfor Detroit and Buffalo would also be visible and take up so much spacein the middle of the diagram that the contents of Chicago and New Yorkwould not be simultaneously visible. Since the user is not interested inDetroit and Buffalo, it would be preferable to either hide thosecontainers, or show them collapsed to icons as they were on the higherlevel diagram.

Thus, the user may prefer a hybrid diagram that mixes symbols fromdifferent levels.

Applicants' system permits individual containers that are open at onelevel to be closed to icons, at which time the other content of thediagram is rearranged to take advantage of the freed space. Further, thesystem allows a closed icon to be expanded in place into an opencontainer, at which time the other content nudges aside to make room forthe newly opened container.

User Restructuring of the Hierarchy

In most cases, the containment hierarchy of a system is implicitlydefined by the semantics of the data, or explicitly defined by a systemadministrator. Since such a containment hierarchy may carry meaning thatmakes it significant for processing of the data, rearranging thehierarchy is not done lightly.

However, to make the most sense for an individual user, it might beuseful to be able to rearrange the structure of the diagrams. Forexample, a network administrator may look at a network segment whichcontains 250 interconnected computers, all of which are semanticallymeaningful terms. However, the administrator may want to focus themajority of his or her attention on the 25 servers running businessprocessing, and may not be very interested in the 225 desktop machinesrunning Windows 98. In a conventional graph diagramming user interface,all the less relevant computers clutter up the display, making theimportant servers or other components of interest hard to see.

While using the system, an individual user may select an arbitrary setof computers, using standard desktop metaphors such as dragging a rubberrectangle or Ctrl-clicking with the mouse, and group them into an ad hoccontainer. This container may then be collapsed into an icon. Thisembodiment allows a user to moves the less relevant computers (or othercomponents) out of the way, without losing the link to them.

Filtering

A graph diagram can easily become cumbersome because of sheer dataoverload. Since graph diagrams typically reflect the physical reality orsome other data structure driven by other processing, there may be somany objects that the diagram is difficult to read. Further, many ofthese objects may be irrelevant to a specific user at a particular time.To address this, the system provides filtering techniques, which can beused to hide objects in the diagram temporarily based on their type,status or other property value.

The system provides a filtering technique based on the inclusion ofobjects in an arbitrary user-defined container. For example, a managermay define a group that contains only those systems that are relevant tohis or her activities. The diagramming system can be set to show onlythose objects that are included in such an arbitrary grouping. Thefiltered diagram can then be used with the features described herein forthe system of the present invention.

Shortcuts

A user of the system may want to include a reference to an object in aparticular container, although the object may be located in anothercontainer. For example, in a container that includes all the serversthat make up a web site, it might make sense to show an iconrepresenting a mainframe used by the web servers, even though themainframe is correctly shown in another container.

The system permits the addition of references to other objects at anypoint in a diagram. Such icons, which represent the referenced object,may be interconnected in the diagram and in general treated like anyregular object.

Combination With Tree Control

Although the zooming graph display feature described above permitsarbitrary navigation through a very large structure, there are timeswhen it may be preferable to use other techniques for navigation. Forexample, for a quick jump to another known location, clicking in aconventional tree control may be preferable.

In addition, the nested graph diagrams give an excellent view of thelocal context, but it may be difficult to identify the current locationwithin the larger context. For this reason, the graph diagrammingdisplay may be supplemented with a “you-are-here” display.

With applicants' system, both of these needs are met by a tree controlthat is kept synchronized with the graph diagram. As you navigate in thenested graph diagrams, the tree controls show where you are; and if youselect a node in the tree control, the diagram is automaticallynavigated to that location. The tree control may be shown or hidden, atthe user's discretion.

You-Are-Here Display

Another useful navigation tool is a small thumbnail map of the entirevirtual space, indicating the present position with a small rectangle.This “you-are-here” map also permits navigation by dragging therectangle on the map.

This technique is known in graphics systems, but has never before beenapplied to a continuous zooming and panning graph diagram display suchas applicants' system.

Application of Hyperbolic Tree User Interface to Network Management

Unicenter TND uses a novel application of the known hyperbolic treevisualization technique to address the problem of navigating networklinks or other relationships in a network.

Since there are so many types of links among the various objectsrepresented in a network graph, the hyperbolic tree is extended with aselector that allows the user to specify what type of link is to beincluded in the hyperbolic tree.

Filtering of nodes based on type, property values or membership in othercontainers can further simplify the diagram.

The status of nodes and links, and other property values such as volumeof traffic, is represented in the hyperbolic tree in the form of coloror icon choice.

The nodes and links in the hyperbolic tree represent real objects in thenetwork. The network management system provides a large number ofoperations that can be invoked on an object, when the objects arerepresented in standard user interface tools such as regular treecontrols and list boxes. It is an essential feature of applicants'system that those same operations are available in the hyperbolic treeas well, presented as items on a context menu, main application menu,keyboard sequences or other standard user interface techniques.

Dynamic and Self-Configuring Visualization Framework

In conventional systems, a particular representation is employed by agraphical user interface based on knowledge of the data to berepresented. For example, a network diagramming system has a lot ofprogramming logic referring to the structure of networks in the graphicscomponent.

For simpler representations, such as tree and list browsers, genericvisualization tools do exist. However, even for those tools, thespecifications for how the information is to be visualized are heldeither in the graphics code itself or in a database or registry on themachine where the visualization is done.

Both of these techniques are inconvenient, because they make itdifficult to reuse the graphics tools to visualize new data that resideson a remote computer. Such new data may be data that has not beenpreviously considered to be in the domain of the graphics tools, as wellas data considered to be in the domain of the graphics tools.Applicants' system provides a general and dynamically reconfiguredvisualization tool that takes its specifications for how the data is tobe represented from a possibly remote data provider, and that providessophisticated visualization.

Architecture

The system relies on a data retrieval infrastructure that permitsvisualization of such new data.

The system provides objects, sets of objects, associations(relationships or links) between the objects or sets of objects, andself-documenting data (e.g. metadata) so that data from relationalinfrastructures can be visualized. As an example, a tuple, such as asingle row in a relational database, can be viewed as a degenerateobject, and that a row set, such as a set of rows in a relationaldatabase, can be viewed as a set of degenerate objects. Thus, data fromrelational infrastructures can be visualized.

It should be noted that foreign key relationships among tables in arelational database are a form of association contemplated by thepresent application.

Although relational systems meet these requirements, many other, moregeneral systems meet the requirements as well. In particular, it iscommon that data is represented as a graph of interconnected objects,which cannot be conveniently or efficiently represented as a table.

In the preferred embodiment, applicants' system is based on aninfrastructure described in more detail in Provisional Application Ser.No. 60/131,019 filed Apr. 26, 1999 which is incorporated herein byreference.

The visualization tools in this infrastructure contain a generalvisualization framework, which provide a number of visualizationtechniques:

A 2-D graph diagramming tool that provides for navigation of nested andinterlinked structures through continuous zoom and pan

A 3-D visualization tool that displays the information in the form ofrealistic or stylized 3-D environments and provide navigation within theenvironment.

A hyperbolic tree visualization tool that makes it convenient tonavigate in very large and bushy graph structure conventional treecontrols, list boxes, spreadsheets and property sheets.

In addition, the visualization framework supports the construction ofvisualization plug-ins. Although this plug-in architecture may of coursebe used to build data-specific visualization tools, that is not thepurpose of applicants' system; rather, it is intended that such plug-insbe built in the same way as the general visualization tools providedwith the system, configuring themselves automatically from data.

In addition to the regular metadata, which allows the visualizationframework to dynamically construct property sheets and tables, thearchitecture is based on the data providers delivering visualizationspecifications in the form of hints added to the general metadata.

These hints may specify, for example, where the icon or 3-D model for anobject is to be found. The hint may specify the icon directly, it mayspecify that a class-level property holds the icon for all objects of acertain class, it may specify that an object-level property holds theicon for each object, or it may specify that a property holds a set oficons and which one is to be used depends on another property (such asstatus).

The hints may be very detailed. For example, for a successful 3-Dvisualization, the hints may specify several external models to be usedat different levels of detail, as well as an internal model, a floortexture, and specialized characteristics such as the radius used forcollision detection.

The hints may specify one or more types of associations used torepresent the containment hierarchy used in trees, diagrams and 3-Dviews, and one or more types of associations that can be shown as linksin those diagrams.

And finally, the hints may specify menu items that are to be displayedon context menus for each class of object, and the path to the methodthat implements each menu item.

With this infrastructure and these extensive hints supplied by theinformation provider, the visualization framework can represent any datathat meets these very broad requirements in a number of verysophisticated ways.

Variation: External Hint Provider

In some instances, an information provider may not have thevisualization hints that are needed for the proper workings of thevisualization framework, and it may not be convenient, permitted orpossible to extend the provider with visualization hints.

In such instances, the framework permits the specification of anexternal provider of visualization hints for an information provider.

Under applicants' system, the person responsible for providing the datacan provide the visualization hints and place them at some convenientlocation, near the data provider or elsewhere, but without having todistribute them to thousands of systems.

E. Neugent

Software Architecture for Providing Neural Network Analysis Services toRemote Computers

Neural network technology is a powerful tool for solving many types ofproblems. The basic mathematics of neural network technology are wellunderstood.

Applicants' system provides a convenient way of connecting neuralnetwork technology to common applications, regardless of the programminglanguage used, and regardless of the location of the user interface, thedata source or the processing resources required by the neural network.

Architecture

The system of the present application can be configured with a neuralnetwork processing service that is connected to a remote accessmechanism. The remote access mechanism can be any object request broker,such as CORBA or Microsoft's DCOM. Preferably, the infrastructuredescribed above and in Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/131,019 isutilized.

The neural network service provider is configured as a class. When usingthe services, the client application creates an instance of the neuralnetwork class. This instance holds the properties that define the taskof the neural network, and also holds the model that the neural networkgenerates after training. The instance is persisted by the neuralnetwork provider in some type of data store. The provider can use anyconventional persistence mechanism, including SQL and a regular filesystem. In the preferred embodiment, the provider uses the objectdatabase of the preferred infrastrucure.

The application performs these tasks:

Instantiate a neural network object which automatically persists itsinformation;

Depending on what type of problem is to be solved, specify some smallnumber of parameters;

Tell the neural network object where its training data is, and tell itto start training; and

Tell the neural network object where its consulting data is, and consultit.

Neural networks can be used to do different types of analysis, and toaddress these different needs. In one embodiment, the system uses threedifferent classes of neural networks:

Value prediction

Event prediction

Cluster analysis

The different types of neural network objects require differentparameters. For example, value prediction requires specification ofwhich fields are to be predicted (the “outputs”).

Some parameters are optional. For example, value prediction normallyassumes that all fields that are not outputs are inputs, but theapplication program may optionally list the input fields specifically,implying that those that are left out are to be ignored. Whereverpossible, all properties are optional, with reasonable values assumed.

One reason for using a neural network is providing the data for trainingas well as consultation. Since the neural network features can be usedfor many diverse functions, a way to increase the efficiency of theneural network technology is to permit an application program to specifythe path to the data; so that the neural network retrieves the data whenit needs it, using the data retrieval infrastructure it is connected to.This removes the need to move data to the location of the neuralnetwork.

It is common in modern architectures to have the client with the userinterface on a system separate from the database server that holds thedata. But since training a neural network may be demanding of computingresources, it is preferred that the architecture allows efficientinvocation of the neural network when it is placed on a third system,separate from either client or data server. And in this case, it is alsopreferred that the neural network retrieves the data directly from thedata server, without requiring that it is passed through the client.

Similarly, after the neural network object has been trained, and thecreated model has been persistently stored, the application consults theneural network in the same way: it specifies the location of the data,and the target path for placing the results, and asks for aconsultation.

In some cases, however, the consultation data may exist in the clientapplication already, after having been entered by the user. To supportsuch situations, the system permits consultation from a collection ofdata objects passed in as arguments.

Neural networks may also be used to predict events. In this case, thedata source is presented the same way as in the value prediction case,but the result is an event, not a set of predicted values. The systemuses the infrastructure to send the predicted events, using the standardevent propagation mechanism.

COMPLIANCE WITH EXAMINER GUIDELINES FOR COMPUTER RELATED INVENTION

In regard to its practical application, the present invention makes asubstantial contribution to and advancement of the practical industrialarts in that it allows the user to use a visualization workstation tomonitor and control remote portions of a networked computer system,using a real world interface while also providing two dimensionalgraphical displays and other tools. It allows comprehensive managementof all resources on the network. Views and data relating to a specificbusiness interest of particular concern to a user may be selected forviewing. The present invention is user customizable. Finally, it isgenerally applicable and extendable to any equipment or system withcomputing and agent communication capability.

The present invention does not fit within any of the per se nonstatutorysubject matters categories: it is not functional descriptive materialsuch as data structures or a computer program listing, is notnonfunctional descriptive material such as various literarycopyrightable works, and is not a natural phenomena in the realm of purescience.

The present invention comprises an inventive combination of software andhardware. Specifically, this application comprises a Virtual Reality(VR) Workstation(s) and Object Repository Server communicating andcontrolling the enterprise client-server system via a TCP/IP or otherconnections. The VR Workstation requires an advanced processor of atleast an Intel Pentium® 586 processor, a 3-D accelerated video boardwith OpenGL support, and at least 32 MB of Random Access Memory (RAM).The software portion of the preferred embodiment uses Windows NT as anoperating system in both the VR Workstation and Object RepositoryServer. The Object Repository includes a database for maintaining thestatus of the enterprise client-server system. The present inventionthus is a product (machine or manufacture) for performing a process andis thus statutory.

The present invention, to the extent that it comprises a series of stepsto be performed on a computer, is a process that manipulates datarepresenting physical objects (e.g., inventory if selected on thebusiness interest) and activities on the networked equipment beingmonitored to achieve the practical application discussed above. Theinventive process also performs independent physical acts after computerprocessing by presenting practical views to the user on thevisualization station monitor. The inventive process does not merelymanipulate data without any practical application. Thus also as aprocess the present invention is statutory.

The foregoing inventive system and apparatus has been describedgenerally and with reference to preferred and other embodiments. Thoseskilled in the art, upon reading of the specification, will understandthat there are equivalent alterations, modifications and embodimentsincluding systems that monitor, control, administer, and manage systemsthat may not be labeled “networked computer systems” but whichsubstantively are networked computer systems. The present inventionincludes systems to administer all networked computer systems, howeverlabeled, and includes all such equivalent alterations and modifications.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for displaying a diagram of at least aportion of a networked computer system, comprising: displaying an iconrepresenting at least one component of the networked computer systemviewed at a first level; displaying a link representing a relationshipbetween at least one of the components represented by the icon and atleast one remote component of the networked computer system viewed atthe first level; receiving a signal from an input device; correlatingthe signal to a zoom operation; and performing the zoom operation,including gradually increasing a zoom speed from zero to a predeterminedmaximum zoom speed and back to zero during the zooming operation.
 2. Amethod for displaying a diagram of at least a portion of a networkedcomputer system, comprising: displaying an icon representing at leastone component of the networked computer system viewed at a first level;displaying a link representing a relationship between at least one ofthe components represented by the icon and at least one remote componentof the networked computer system viewed at the first level; receiving asignal from an input device; correlating the signal to a transitiondisplay operation; performing the transition display operation,including determining if the signal is correlated to a transitiondisplay operation that is a continuous zoom operation that increases azoom speed from zero to a predetermined maximum zoom speed and decreasesthe zoom speed back to zero during the continuous zoom operation; andperforming at least one predetermined advanced rendering technique ofanti-aliasing, tinting, and translucency if the signal is correlated tothe continuous zoom operation.
 3. A method for displaying a diagram ofat least a portion of networked computer system, comprising: displayingan icon representing at least one component of the networked computersystem viewed at a first level; displaying a link representing arelationship between at least one of the components represented by theicon and at least one remote component of the networked computer systemviewed at the first level; receiving a signal from an input device;correlating the signal to a transition display operation; determining ifthe signal correction to a transition display operation thatcontinuously zooms until the icon is converted to a container; andperforming the transition display operation, including graduallyincreasing a zoom speed from zero to a predetermined maximum zoom speedand decreasing the zoom speed back to zero during the transition displayoperation.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein: displaying an iconcomprises displaying a three-dimensional icon; and displaying a linkcomprises displaying a three-dimensional link.
 5. The method of claim 1,further comprising: displaying a first representation symbolizing ageographic area; and displaying a second representation symbolizing abuilding.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein: displaying the iconcomprises displaying the icon within the second representationsymbolizing a building; and displaying the second representationsymbolizing the building comprises displaying the second representationsymbolizing the building within the first representation symbolizing ageographic area.
 7. The method of claim 5, wherein displaying the secondrepresentation symbolizing a building comprises: receiving a picture ofan actual building; and generating the second representation symbolizingthe building based on the picture.
 8. The method of claim 2, wherein:displaying an icon comprises displaying a three-dimensional icon; anddisplaying a link comprises displaying a three-dimensional link.
 9. Themethod of claim 2, further comprising: displaying a first representationsymbolizing a geographic area; and displaying a second representationsymbolizing a building.
 10. The method of claim 9, wherein: displayingthe icon comprises displaying the icon within the second representationsymbolizing a building; and displaying the second representationsymbolizing the building comprises displaying the second representationsymbolizing the building within the first representation symbolizing ageographic area.
 11. The method of claim 9, wherein displaying thesecond representation symbolizing a building comprises: receiving apicture of an actual building; and generating the second representationsymbolizing the building based on the picture.
 12. The method of claim3, wherein: displaying an icon comprises displaying a three-dimensionalicon; and displaying a link comprises displaying a three-dimensionallink.
 13. The method of claim 3, further comprising: displaying a firstrepresentation symbolizing a geographic area; and displaying a secondrepresentation symbolizing a building.
 14. The method of claim 13,wherein: displaying the icon comprises displaying the icon within thesecond representation symbolizing a building; and displaying the secondrepresentation symbolizing the building comprises displaying the secondrepresentation symbolizing the building within the first representationsymbolizing a geographic area.
 15. The method of claim 13, whereindisplaying the second representation symbolizing a building comprises:receiving a picture of an actual building; and generating the secondrepresentation symbolizing the building based on the picture.
 16. Themethod of claim 1: further comprising upon finishing the zoom operation,displaying at least a second icon representing at least one componentviewed at a second level different than the first level; wherein if thezoom operation is a zoom-in operation, performing the zoom operationcomprises zooming into the icon representing at least one component ofthe networked computer system viewed at a first level to display thesecond icon viewed at the second level; and wherein if the zoomoperation is a zoom-out operation, performing the zoom operationcomprises zooming out from the icon representing at least one componentof the networked computer system viewed at a first level to display thesecond icon being viewed at the second level, wherein the first icon iswithin the second icon.